Dental prosthetics such as dentures may be fabricated by initially taking impressions of a patient's edentulous maxillary and mandibular arches. The impressions are used as molds into which a cast material such as gypsum is subsequently poured to form dental casts that are duplicates of the patient's maxillary and mandibular arches. The dental casts serve as a model for the dental prosthesis which is to be fabricated.
The dental casts which form the model for fabrication of the prosthesis may be mounted in a dental articulator to maintain the maxillary and mandibular portions of the casts in the same anatomical relationship as the maxilla and the mandible, respectively, in the mouth of the patient. Additionally, placement of the dental casts into the dental articulator may permit arrangement of the individual teeth of the dentures into their proper positions for occlusion. The individual teeth of the dentures may then be set in wax which is applied over the dental casts.
After it is placed on the dental casts to set the teeth of the dentures, the wax may be melted or softened and shaped by applying a heated wax shaping tool to the wax. The wax shaping tool, commonly known as a “waxing iron”, may be heated by placing the tool over the flame of a Bunsen burner or over some other heat source. Conventional methods of holding the tool over the heat source include placement of the heat source inside a coffee can the bottom of which has been cut out. The wax shaping tool is supported on the edge of the coffee can and placed over the heat source. Other methods include supporting the tool over the open flame of a Bunsen burner using a wire hanger. After the wax is placed on the dental casts, the heated wax shaping tool is removed from the heat source and applied to the wax to melt or soften the wax and shape the wax to set the teeth on the dental casts.
One of the drawbacks of the conventional method of holding the wax shaping tool over a heat source is that the coffee can, wire hanger or other support is not well-suited to holding the wax shaping tool over the heat source. Furthermore, an open flame of the Bunsen burner or other heat source may pose a fire hazard. Therefore, a wax shaping tool heating assembly which is simple in design and easy to use is needed.